Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Amy Shark, Sony Music 2020.
Everybody Rise is the first new music released by Amy Shark since her number one ARIA album, Love Monster, released in 2018.
That album achieved platinum sales and was recognised as the best album of 2018 with four ARIA awards for Album Of The Year, Best Female Artist, Best Pop Release, and Best Producer (Dann Hume).
Love Monster was a huge world-wide hit and Amy appeared on The Late Show with James Corden and also The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon bringing her into the living rooms of millions of Americans.
This is a massive success for a young Australian girl and, like Tones And I, it could have easily derailed her.
Instead she has continued her upward trajectory with world-wide sell-out tours
It’s a testament to both of these talented young artists that they’ve been able to back up after such impressive first up efforts and the resultant media frenzy associated with them.
Interestingly enough Everybody Rise is a song about that very thing, the ‘worship culture’ of social media and how idols distract us from the humanity that’s right in front of us.
Amy is very proud of the song claiming that “This single is me properly hitting my stride. The next chapter will define me even more than Love Monster did.”
It’s a big call and while I like the new single it hasn’t as yet taken a hold on me as Adore or Mess Her Up or indeed most of the tracks on Love Monster did.
I need to add that I’ve only listened to the song twice and it’s maybe a little unfair to compare it with tracks that I had on continuous play for weeks.
There are aspects to Everybody Rise that show that Amy is still experimenting.
Vocally she’s pushing into new territory and the track has seen a continuation of her blending differing musical styles and genres to create new and complex structures.
There’s an impressive film clip to go with the single on YouTube which is worthwhile watching.
